this time, with love
by JERSIIIfied
Summary: Because Kushina didn't loose her first child, and suddenly the world was a very different place. OC Namikaze. MinaKushi.
1. Chapter 1

**Because Kushina didn't loose her first child, and suddenly the world was a very different place. A "what-if" of a happier place.**

* * *

The day Minato found out was the day after Kushina had to be admitted to the hospital.  
The war was still ongoing, brutal and bloody and destroying everything in its wake. Children were killing and, even worse, it was starting to become the norm. The war was forcing people's ideals and morals to change, and what was once unacceptable was now excused for the sake of the greater good of the village.  
Minato was deployed whenever he could, with very few time in between missions. Normally, shinobi had a certain quota of missions to reach before they were forcibly removed from service in order to recuperate properly. Murder was an emotionally taxing job.  
Minato was pretty sure he had fulfilled that quota about 10 times over since the war began, and he didn't see it ending any time soon.  
The exhaustion, both mental and physical, as well as the stress of fulfilling his missions and keeping his kids alive (Dear god, they were all so young and they had to see so much. Endure so much.) was taking it's toll on his personal life, and as much as he loathed to admit it, his skills. Both social and shinobi.  
That's probably why he didn't realise his (secret) wife had missed her cycle (They had to keep a very strict schedule to prepare for when Kushina went ape-shit. Crazier than normal, anyway. And the results were usually disastrous for all parties involved). He didn't realise her suspicious aversion to certain foods, her sudden cravings for random food, and most significantly, the limited intake of her favourite non - nutritional ramen (out of everything, that should've been Kushina's most incriminating clue).  
There were loads of little clues that should've added up his mind (and probably, at the back of his mind, the clues were accumulating to a bigger picture, genius as he was), but quite honestly, Minato was far too taxed to think in the few hours he got of non-kill-or-be-killed.  
So when he got back from a mission one day and found out that his Uzumaki, vitality-full, long-living wife of 3 months had collapsed in the hospital due to exhaustion, Minato didn't know what to think. He could only consider the worst. Enemy attack, chakra sickness, cancer. Anything.

But Minato felt one overwhelming feeling above all the panic and confusion he felt as he rushed out of the building, abandoning his team with the confused ninja who had been the one to tell Minato the news. Regret.  
Regret at the fact that he didn't know. At the fact that he couldn't know, with all the killing and surviving he had to do. Regret that he couldn't be a better man. A worthier man. A man who didn't have to kill, who didn't have to go to war.  
A man who could look after the woman he loved without having to go away to war for a few months mere hours later.  
He could've been so much better. He SHOULD be so much better.  
But right now, he should be there, when she needed him most.  
He needed to see Kushina.

...

"Good morning"  
Kushina woke up to the feeling of warmth and comfort. Of a gentle touch making its was through her hair, as a familiar scent and presence enveloped her in its security.  
"Mornin', 'Nato" she whispered softly, as if scared that a louder noise would disturb the peace and get rid of presence she had so craved in the 2 months of his absence. Kushina missed that little smile he got whenever she called him by the nickname he allowed only for her, of the food he hated so much.  
His hand didn't stop its motion, although his other hand did tighten its hold around her waist slightly, from where he laid beside her on the hospital bed. His words were just as soft, maybe even softer, looking at her both in awe and fear. "How have you been?"

He thought she was the most powerful woman in the world, but he feared so much that she could break so easily as soon as he turned his head away.  
Her answering smile was so bright, it blinded him far more than the early morning sun filtering through the curtains. "I was just a little tired. And stressed. You've been gone so long and there were rumours of an ambush and I just... I panicked, because I never got to tell you, and I'm sorry and you never would've known that you would be-"  
"Kushina, Kushina, stop. It's fine. You're fine. I... I'm the one who should be apologising. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you and compromised your health like that, especially now. When... Kushina. Fucking hell" he ran a shaking hand through the mess of blonde on his head. She had only heard him swear twice before. "I just... I'm so happy... How... What... I-"  
Kushina placed a gentle hand on top of his shaking ones, fingers curling around his to placate the trembles. "Minato. I'm fine. We're fine. She- she's great"  
Minato's eyes shone a brighter blue at this new piece of information, his eyes like that of the sky on a clear summer's day. Kushina could only hope that she inherited that from him, if nothing else. "She's a girl?"  
Kushina's answering laugh was like that of the wind chimes which tinkered on that clear summer's day. "We're having a girl!" She squealed, their laughter blending together and echoing with the happiness only a mother and a father could have.  
They were going to have a child.

A light in the darkness of war.


	2. Chapter 2

Minato was a protective man. Unsurprisingly, he was a very, very protective father.  
Even less of a surprise: Kushina felt smothered after Minato's initial excitement. It was a cause of great contention with the previously harmonious couple.  
Minato constantly attempted to prevent even the slightest risk to Kushina and their unborn child. When Minato was away on a mission, Minato acquired the aid of his multiple friends to "supervise" Kushina (Kakashi was often left to face her wrath, as he had lacked the social skill and tact required to appease the red habanero). And when nobody was available, Minato went to the extent of hiring konoha chunin to watch and help his pregnant wife.  
Minato argued that he had many enemies, especially due to the war and his significant contributions to the war effort. Also, despite always managing to remain calm and collected under enemy fire or an ambush, he didn't do well concerning the people he loved outside of a shinobi scenario.  
Kushina eventually relented when she had realised that the reason Minato was so overprotective was because he had lost his parents during the last war, leaving him an orphan. He didn't want to loose his family again. Especially with her pregnancy being so difficult. Kushina didn't know whether the complication was because she was a jinchuuriki, or because she was a ninja, or whether it was because this was her first pregnancy. They almost lost their child during her first trimester, when a complication occurred, and it was only with the help of Tsunade (who was thankfully on a mission nearby) that the baby's life had been save. Tsunade was named godmother by a crying Minato when he'd found out what had almost happened.

He vowed to protect them with his life.  
So, in a bid to ensure that he was there for his daughter's birth, Minato volunteered himself for every mission available (of course, with the ready approval of his team) in order to accommodate the week off he wanted so he would be available near Kushina's due date.

So when the mission came in for the destruction of the Kannabi Bridge, team Minato was otherwise unavailable. Kakashi (who had been promoted earlier than expected due to their suddenly influx of completed missions) had lead his first mission a month previous to great success, despite an initial complication regarding a disagreement between Kakashi and Obito that had eventually been resolved by Rin. Therefore, the team (despite having an available leader) opted to stay in Konoha for the birth of their sensei's much anticipated child. Besides, they didn't really want to go on such an important mission without their sensei after the disaster of Kakashi's first jounin mission.

"Minato, you need to relax" head peaking into the kitchen, Kushina could only sigh when her husband had once again situated himself on their kitchen table, configuring seals in anticipation for the birth of their daughter. He had spent the past 3 days going over his seal designs, checking for any errors despite Kushina's and Jiraiya's reassurances. Since going on leave, Minato triple checked all preparations once a day, ensuring Tsunade was on standby, Jiraiya was still in the village (who had also requested to stay in the village for Kushina's delivery in case the seal experienced any problems Minato was unable to rectify) and that birthing location was still secure. The 3rd hokage allowed such demanding circumstances because he really want a Kyuubi attack on top of the 3rd great shinobi war. Also, 2 sannins make for a very compelling argument to the man who had practically raised them. So Minato was ready for anything.

Anything but the sound of his wife gasping from the kitchen. Running (as he had forgotten about the Hiraishin in his panic) and almost tripping over his feet, Minato faced the sight of his wife standing in a puddle of liquid, holding her stomach with both hands. Husband and wife looked at each other with similar expressions of equal amounts excitement and fear before Minato came to his senses and ran for the birthing bag. He hastily created multiple shadow clones to relay the news to all the parties involved, before he was rushing his wife out of the house. Kushina had to laugh despite her worries.  
"Minato, you need to calm down. It's like you're the one about to have your body ripped open by our child"  
Minato only glared, and Kushina allowed herself to be ushered out of the house.

* * *

The birth was as expected. Expected by Minato, anyway. It was a wreck. A disaster, and not just because Kushina had actually broken his hand when the first bad contraction hit.  
It all went to hell when Kushina started pushing. The seal had started to become unstable, and it took the combined efforts of Minato and Jiraiya to stabilise it for the birth. Tsunade (who had thankfully been Kushina's primary physician since the discovery of the pregnancy) also had to spend a good few hours healing Kushina's uterus in between contractions.  
It was a difficult 23 hours of labour, especially for Kushina, who had to endure the Kyuubi chakra travelling through her whenever the seal weakened.  
But in the end, it was all worth it.  
Their child. The light of their life. She was their 'Hikari'.

When Minato held his beautiful little girl in his arms, he promised himself that he he would do whatever it took to protect his family and any other children he and Kushina would have.  
He needed to prepare for the worst. It was only through luck that Tsunade had been there when they had almost lost their baby. It was through luck that Jiraiya had been available for the birth, providing the extra help he had needed to stabilise the seal like that. If anything else had gone differently, he would've lost his child before he had even found out. God forbid, the Kyuubi could have escaped. Minato couldn't risk that. He needed to start planning. For anything.  
He now knows what could happen. What he could do.

In another life, he had returned home from a normal mission to a crying wife, sobbing and apologising to the lost child they had never gotten to hold. In a another life, this extra bit of knowledge would have saved a little boy from living a miserable, loveless childhood.  
Maybe in this life, it will.


End file.
